


Never Stood a Chance

by bitterglitter



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Cats, M/M, it literally just jimon adopting domberto's cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 23:44:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9792302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitterglitter/pseuds/bitterglitter
Summary: Fuck. He has to stay strong.Simon pulls the kitten back, thank god, only to hold her up to his face. He offers a small, nervous smile, the same one he wore when he asked Jace to move in with him. That’s cheating, that’s the worst kind of cheating. “Come on, Jace. Can we keep her? Please?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> with the mess of this week in the show and fandom i thought we could all use some nice jimon. this was originally going to be for jimon week, but due to personal events i couldn't complete the week, but i still had this to post. enjoy jimon with domberto's cats

Jace is halfway down the block when he notices he’s alone.

He stops dead in his tracks, shopping bags swaying in his grip, and turns his head both ways. He’s not  _ alone  _ alone, there’s always other people on the street, but Simon is nowhere to be seen. It had been getting suspiciously quiet, and even though Jace has learned that between bursts of rambling Simon can get surprisingly silent, it had been stretching on longer than he’s used to. 

“Simon?” Jace asks, looking behind him, wondering if he’s just gotten caught up in a passing crowd of it they somehow got separated. 

Ah. There he is. Just a few stores down, Jace’s boyfriend is standing in front of a shop window, all but pressing his face against the glass. Simon has a history of getting distracted by things in stores, but Jace is pretty sure that this is the first time he’s seen Simon trying to mold himself to the glass. 

Jace readjusts his grip on the bags before turning and making his way back to Simon, who doesn’t seem to notice him as he walks up. He isn’t even sure if Simon will respond if he talks, so he turns to see what he’s actually looking at-

Oh. Yeah, okay. 

The first animal Jace spots is a puppy curled up against the window, dark brown with a big light brown spot under his chin. There’s several other ones, all different shades and several different breeds, chasing each other and fighting over toys. But it doesn’t look like Simon is paying them any attention, which is a little confusing since Simon will literally drag Jace across the street to pet a dog. He’s gotten out of the car as Jace was stopping at a stop light before, which is probably the closest he’s even gotten to having a heart attack. 

Jace leans a little closer to peek into the pet store, trying to figure out what exactly has grabbed his boyfriend’s attention that isn’t a puppy. 

The shop from the outside isn’t too noticeable, kind of small, so it’s pretty impressive with how much they have inside. It looks nice enough, a toned down white covers the walls and the floors a deep brown. The left side of the store has been completely dedicated to supplies. Jace can see everything from food to rather large, colorful bird cages. To the right are the actual animals, some birds peek their beaks out from their cages and Jace recognizes closed off reptile tanks. Behind them, at the very back are the rest of puppies and kittens. 

And from the looks of it, Simon is eyeing one of them. 

“See something you like?” Jace asks, similar teasing tone as when the comment refers to himself. 

“ _ Yes _ .” Simon quickly nods, pushes away from the window, and hurries inside. It happens so fast, Jace feels like he’s been left with whiplash, staring at where Simon once stood. 

Inside the pet store is warm, a nice relief from the mid-Febuary chill outside. With the supplies is a counter with a woman standing behind it, lock of hair weaved around several fingers, raising an eyebrow at Jace. He offers a smile before turning to see Simon speed-walking towards the back. 

Simon stops in front of one row of cages. They’re all stacked next to each other, dogs one horizontal row, cats the other. Simon kneels down slightly to a cat row and-

That’s not really surprising. Okay, it kind of is. Simon has never officially declared if he’s a dog or cat person, instead claiming to love all animals, but Simon gets  _ excited  _ to see dogs. Especially puppies.  _ Especially _ a large amount of puppies in one space, as Jace has unfortunately learned the last time they passed a big pet store with an advertisement to pet puppies. But it’s not like he hates cats, so Jace doesn’t really have an excuse.

“Whatcha find?” Jace asks, putting the shopping bags down and kneeling next to him. 

Jace leans over into Simon’s space to look into the cage and is greeted with a pair of wide, dark cat eyes. It’s a small kitten, curled up like it’s ready to pounce at the glass. 

“If you’re interested, I can pull her out.” Both Jace and Simon turn to see the store keeper behind them, twirling a set of keys instead of her hair. 

“We’re just here to look-” Jace reassures her, starting to smile. 

“Yes, please.”

Jace turns to look at Simon in surprise. He’s not seriously considering it, is he? Jace isn’t even sure if they could handle looking after a fish together, much less a kitten. 

“Simon-” Jace tries, but the woman steps between them to unlock the cage. When she pulls out the kitten it looks even smaller if that’s possible. Both boys stand up and Jace watches as Simon is handed the kitten. 

She’s dark brown, the color getting lighter as it surrounds her face and on the tips of her ears. She’s covered in small markings of black that blend in well with the darker parts of her fur. As soon as she’s in Simon’s hands she curls up and starts rubbing the side of her face against Simon’s curled thumb. Jace can practically see Simon’s insides turn to mush. 

“She’s pretty young, so be careful with her. If you decide if you want her or not, I’ll be at the counter.” She jerks her thumb behind her. Simon obviously isn’t listening, too busy quietly cooing to the kitten, so Jace nods. 

“What’re you doing?” Jace whispers as soon as the woman is out of earshot. “You know we can’t adopt a cat. “

Simon  _ finally  _ looks up at him, which was supposed to be a good thing in theory but Jace is immediately met with puppy dog eyes. “Why not?” Simon asks, even though he  _ has  _ to know why, and cradles the kitten close to his chest. 

“Because we don’t have the time to take care of one? Because I’m not even sure if we can have pets in the apartment? Because you’ve never had to take care of a pet by yourself?” Jace crosses his arms over his chest, refusing to look down at the kitten. He already has to deal with Simon giving him those goddamn puppy dog eyes, he’s not sure if he can handle the double assault. 

“You’d be her dad too.” Simon cracks a grin and -  _ fuck  _ \- the kitten starts purring so loud Jace can hear it clearly. 

“She’s not our kid, Si.” 

“Yeah, duh.” Simon rolls his eyes, still grinning that stupidly cute grin. “She’s not until we sign the adoption papers.” 

Jace lets out a heavy sigh, preparing to put all his resistance to Simon’s puppy dog eyes to use at once. It’ll probably deplete him for a day or two, but all that really means is Jace won’t have any control of the TV until he can replenish it. “Simon-” 

“Look at her.” Simon cuts him off, holding the kitten up until Jace is practically nose to nose with her. “ _ Look  _ at her. Can you really say no to this face?” Slowly, the kitten blinks and curiously swats her paw at him, claws safely tucked away. 

_ Fuck.  _ He has to stay strong. 

Simon pulls the kitten back, thank god, only to hold her up to his face. He offers a small, nervous smile, the same one he wore when he asked Jace to move in with him. That’s cheating, that’s the  _ worst  _ kind of cheating. “Come on, Jace. Can we keep her? Please?” 

Jace’s face feels hot and he tries to scowl, but his face, apparently, has decided not to cooperate. His lips twitch the wrong way and he can’t get his gaze to sharpen at all. Even his body has turned against him today, what the hell? “I knew I shouldn’t have let you talk me into taking a shortcut home. It wasn’t even a real shortcut, it took longer than usual. Now this.” 

“It’s not like I  _ planned  _ on seeing the most amazing, adorable kitten in the world today. Pure coincidence.” Simon juts his lower lip out into a pout and tips his head just enough so he’s looking at Jace over his glasses. 

_ Pure coincidence,  _ sure. Jace wouldn’t put actually planning this out past him. 

Simon keeps looking at him like that and, goddammit, now the cat is too. Jace’s will is only so strong, and it has always been significantly weaker in anything involving Simon, not that he would verbally admit it.  _ Fuck it.  _ “If it’ll get you to stop looking at me like that, yes, we can adopt the cat.” 

“Yes!” Simon pumps his free fist up. Why is everything he does so adorable? He looks down at the kitten, grinning wildly. “You hear that, Stella? You get to come home with us!”

Stella gives a soft mew in response, rubbing her nose into the palm of Simon’s hand.  

“You named her already?” Jace raises an eyebrow. 

“I named her the second I saw her.” 

“I never stood a chance, did I?’ 

“Nope.” Simon’s grin is so bright and happy that Jace can’t even bring himself to act upset. 

Simon practically dances up to the front counter with Stella, cooing to the kitten about how she’ll love her new home. The woman at the counter turns to give Jace a knowing look, glancing between him and Simon several times with her eyebrows raised, before turning back to her post. 

A surprisingly loud mew from behind is what stops Jace from walking over to join Simon. He turns around to the wall of kittens and-

Yeah. He never stood a chance.

* * *

 

When Jace walks into the bedroom, he finds Simon sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, dressed in only boxers and a t-shirt -- both Captain America themed. His laptop has been pushed dangerously close to the edge instead of it’s usual spot on Simon’s lap, but he’s too preoccupied with playing with the kitten in his lap to notice. 

“Hope you left some room on there for me.” Jace keeps his tone light, he’d given up on trying to act annoyed about the new additions to the household several hours ago. He walks over to the bed, still toweling off his damp hair. “Or has my side been reserved?”

“I’m pretty sure Stella and I  _ might  _ be able to make some room for you,” Simon tilts his head up towards Jace, the same grin that’s been on his face all day still there, “but I’m not so sure everyone agrees you can share the bed.” He pulls back the cover to reveal a small kitten, several shades darker than Stella, sleeping peacefully right in the middle of where Jace normally sleeps. 

“I can’t believe it. Betrayed by my own kitten.” Jace climbs up onto the bed, shoving his pillows against the headboard so he can fit. “Rajah, how could you?” he asks as he reaches down to gently pick Rajah up into his hands. She squirms a little as he brings her up to his chest, but then decides this spot is comfortable enough. 

“I told you she’d be like this.” Simon snickers, scooting back to his side of the bed. “You could see it from the look in her eyes. We’ll both be kicked out of the bed by next week.” 

“Excuse me, that look in her eyes is  _ spirit  _ and  _ personality.  _ Don’t you criticize my cat.” 

“She’s going to be as much as a needy drama queen as you are.” 

Jace gasps so loud Simon’s snickers turn to laughs. “I am  _ not needy. _ ”

“Whatever you say.” Simon allows, but there’s a wicked gleam in his eyes that Jace knows this won’t be let go so quickly. 

As night falls outside, both of them begin to get ready for bed. Simon’s laptop is moved to his nightstand and Jace flings his towel across the room in the vague direction of the laundry basket (earning him a less than impressed glare from Simon). They climb under the blankets and before turning the lights off place Stella and Rajah on the blanket above them, letting them curl up against one another as Jace and Simon do. 


End file.
